We Don’t Need 40-Year Dev’t Plan – Gyan-Baffour

The Minister designate for Planning, Prof George Gyan-Baffour, says Ghana does not need a forty-year development plan.

According to him, the plan is problematic, as it depicts rigidity.

“A forty-year development plan connotes rigidity. It could mean people cannot bring in what they want to do,” he told the Appointments Committee of parliament on Monday during his vetting.

The former National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration under the leadership of John Mahama, in August 2015, launched a forty-year National Development Plan for the country spanning 2018 to 2057.

The plan is to provide a framework for national development, binding on successive governments. The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) during the formulation of the plan, consulted all the four major political parties.

Prof Gyan-Baffour, however, argued that the current plan is restrictive and that it would be inimical to the development of the country.

Ghana, he maintained, needs a long term development vision but not forty year development plan.

“We need a development framework but not a plan that will be restrictive,” he said.

The Akufo-Addo government, according to the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo, would take a second look at the forty year plan, and in consultation with the NDPC, review the plan to make it feasible.

“We will look at the 40-year-plan; it is important that every country like Ghana gets a long-term plan, particularly with respect to infrastructure, so that there will be continuity. So we will definitely look at it and where modifications are necessary, we’ll make it after going through,” he said when he appeared before the committee last month.

“I believe in consultation so we will talk to the originators of the plan and ensure a full change.”